QEMU Windows 10 VM with USB Audio Passthrough (Komplete Audio 6 & AKAI LPK25)

qemu-windows10-usb-audio-passthrough.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash
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# QEMU/KVM Windows 10 VM with USB Audio Passthrough for Music Production
#
# Description: Production-ready script for running Windows 10 in QEMU/KVM with
# USB passthrough for audio interfaces and MIDI controllers. Optimized for
# music production on Linux with Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6 and AKAI LPK25.
#
# Author: aaronedev (https://github.com/aaronedev)
# Version: 1.0
# License: MIT
#
# Features:
# - Automatic USB device detection and passthrough
# - SPICE display with automatic viewer launch
# - PipeWire audio backend for low latency
# - SMB network folder sharing
# - Hyper-V enlightenments for Windows optimization
# - 24GB RAM, 10 CPU cores configuration
#
# Requirements:
# - QEMU 8.x+ with KVM support
# - User must be in 'kvm' group: sudo usermod -a -G kvm $USER
# - SPICE viewer: sudo pacman -S virt-viewer (Arch) / apt install virt-viewer (Debian)
# - PipeWire audio system
# - Windows 10 ISO and VirtIO drivers ISO
#
# USB Devices Supported:
# - Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6 (17cc:1001)
# - AKAI LPK25 MIDI Controller (09e8:0076)
# - Easy to add more devices by copying the detection pattern
#
# Usage:
# 1. Update paths to ISOs and disk image
# 2. Run: ./qemu-windows10-usb-audio-passthrough.sh
# 3. SPICE viewer will auto-launch
# 4. Access shared folder in Windows: \\10.0.2.4\qemu
#
# Troubleshooting:
# - If USB devices cause disconnects, disable autosuspend:
#   echo -1 | sudo tee /sys/module/usbcore/parameters/autosuspend
# - For permission issues: ls -la /dev/bus/usb/*/*
# - Check logs: journalctl -f | grep qemu
#
# Tags: qemu, kvm, windows-10, windows-vm, usb-passthrough, audio-interface,
#       music-production, native-instruments, komplete-audio, midi-controller,
#       akai-lpk25, linux-audio, pipewire, spice, virtualization, vm-script,
#       bash-script, fachinformatiker, system-integration, arch-linux

set -euo pipefail

### VM parameters ###
VM_NAME="Windows10"
CPU_CORES=10
RAM_SIZE="24G"
DISK_IMAGE="/var/lib/libvirt/images/win10.qcow2"

### ISOs ###
WIN10_ISO="/var/lib/libvirt/images/Win10_22H2_English_x64v1.iso"
VIRTIO_ISO="$HOME/repos/qemu/virtio-win-0.1.271.iso"

### Networking ###
RDP_PORT=3389
SHARED_FOLDER="$HOME/shared"
SPICE_PORT=5900
mkdir -p "$SHARED_FOLDER"

### Display ###
VGAMEM_MB=128

### CPU features ###
CPU_MODEL="host"
HV_FEATURES="hv_relaxed,hv_spinlocks=0x1fff,hv_vapic,hv_time,hv_vpindex,hv_synic,hv_stimer,hv_ipi"

### USB passthrough ###
# Komplete Audio 6 (VID:PID=17cc:1001)
if lsusb -d 17cc:1001 >/dev/null 2>&1; then
	read -r audio_bus audio_addr < <(
		lsusb -d 17cc:1001 |
			awk '{print $2, $4}' |
			sed 's/://'
	)
	audio_bus=${audio_bus#0}
	audio_addr=${audio_addr#0}
	USB_AUDIO="-device usb-host,bus=xhci.0,hostbus=${audio_bus},hostaddr=${audio_addr}"
else
	echo "Warning: Komplete Audio 6 not found"
	USB_AUDIO=""
fi

# AKAI LPK25 (VID:PID=09e8:0076)
if lsusb -d 09e8:0076 >/dev/null 2>&1; then
	read -r midi_bus midi_addr < <(
		lsusb -d 09e8:0076 |
			awk '{print $2, $4}' |
			sed 's/://'
	)
	midi_bus=${midi_bus#0}
	midi_addr=${midi_addr#0}
	USB_MIDI="-device usb-host,bus=xhci.0,hostbus=${midi_bus},hostaddr=${midi_addr}"
else
	echo "Warning: AKAI LPK25 not found"
	USB_MIDI=""
fi

### Run QEMU in background ###
echo "Starting Windows 10 VM..."
qemu-system-x86_64 \
	-name "$VM_NAME" \
	-machine q35,accel=kvm \
	-smp "${CPU_CORES}",sockets=1,cores="${CPU_CORES}",threads=1 \
	-m "$RAM_SIZE" \
	-cpu "$CPU_MODEL","$HV_FEATURES" \
	-netdev user,id=net0,hostfwd=tcp::${RDP_PORT}-:${RDP_PORT},smb="$SHARED_FOLDER" \
	-device virtio-net-pci,netdev=net0 \
	-device qxl-vga,vgamem_mb="${VGAMEM_MB}" \
	-spice port=${SPICE_PORT},disable-ticketing=on \
	-display none \
	-device virtio-serial-pci \
	-chardev spicevmc,id=spicechannel0,name=vdagent \
	-device virtserialport,chardev=spicechannel0,name=com.redhat.spice.0 \
	-audiodev pipewire,id=snd0 \
	-device ich9-intel-hda \
	-device hda-output,audiodev=snd0 \
	-device qemu-xhci,id=xhci \
	$USB_AUDIO \
	$USB_MIDI \
	-drive file="$WIN10_ISO",media=cdrom,index=2 \
	-drive file="$VIRTIO_ISO",media=cdrom,index=3 \
	-drive file="$DISK_IMAGE",if=ide \
	-boot menu=on \
	-enable-kvm \
	-daemonize

# Wait for SPICE to be ready
echo "Waiting for SPICE server..."
for i in {1..10}; do
	if nc -z 127.0.0.1 $SPICE_PORT 2>/dev/null; then
		echo "SPICE server ready!"
		break
	fi
	sleep 1
done

# Connect with SPICE client
echo "Launching SPICE viewer..."
remote-viewer spice://127.0.0.1:${SPICE_PORT} &

echo "VM started successfully!"
echo "SPICE: spice://127.0.0.1:${SPICE_PORT}"
echo "RDP: 127.0.0.1:${RDP_PORT} (when Windows boots)"
echo "Shared folder: \\\\10.0.2.4\\qemu"

@Ableton any ideas how i could improve this setup?

@libvirt yo guys what u think can i improve this setup?

@NativeInstruments any ideas how i could improve my vm setup for music production?

@alsa-project guys what u think any ideas how i can improve this?

@PipeWire thoughts?